The Venezuela Symposium

On the night of January 3, 2026, United States armed forces penetrated the security perimeter surrounding Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and arrested him and his wife, exfiltrating them to the U.S. to stand trial on various criminal charges. This action was flawlessly executed by America’s military and eliminated, in one movement, one of the most anti-American political leaders in the Latin American region. The Maduro regime was illegitimate, having defied the results of a national election in July 2024, which clearly selected Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to be the president of Venezuela. Socialist to the core, the regime was part of a decades-long effort to cement collectivism in a formerly thriving country that had been transformed under the strains of Hugo Chavez and Maduro’s immiserating reign of Marxist thuggery. Maduro had also given China operating room in Venezuela, a staging ground for Sino-politics on the continent, marginalizing American efforts in the region.

What’s next for Venezuela, Latin America, and the United States? There has been no clear regime change in Venezuela, nor any push for democracy, the rule of law, or markets. We have heard a great deal about oil, though. Does America have any coherent plan, grounded in democracy and the rule of law, beyond regime influence? What about the Venezuelan opposition and its desire to supplant the new ruling government? We have assembled eight Latin American contributors to discuss these questions and more.